Scaling and Profit Strategies - Quantum Scaling℠

Blog: Let's Talk Strategy

Roll of the Dice

by Peggy Niles

Have you ever taken a trip to Vegas? If so, have you gone with the intention to have fun and hope that luck is on your side or have you gone with a plan? Have you thought about what you’re going to do ahead of time? Here’s an example: I’m going to take this much money with me. I’ll allow myself to lose this much per day; if I win I’ll put this much back in my pocket and not touch it. I’ll also plan on seeing some shows – hitting some of the better restaurants – get the full Vegas experience. Oh yeah, ahead of time I’ll learn a little about the games I want to play so I don’t go in blindly.

Now the cards you draw or the dice you roll are still a key component of deciding if you win or lose, but you put the odds a little more in your favor. You’ll have an idea of when to walk away – when it’s okay to take a chance, but you won’t totally lose the game because you’ve allotted yourself so much to gamble with. Having a business can be looked at in much the same way – a gamble, but typically the stakes are much higher!

In business you’re putting yourself out there. Running a business often entails using personal resources, extra time away from family and friends, missing important events, even risking your health.

The thrill of it can be just like the experience of winning big in Vegas, even better, but the effects of the hardships are often devastating personally as much as professionally.

Imagine yourself in the midst of Vegas on a busy night. The magnificent lights along the street, from the slot machines in the casinos, wall to wall people walking down the streets, bumper to bumper cars flowing in traffic, the roar of people clapping and cheering when the dice are rolling in their favor at the craps table, players chatting away and making new friends as they can’t miss a good hand at the blackjack table and you’re winning big.

Now imagine you in your business, something you’ve built up on your own, having the clients or customers you want because you built a product or service just for them and they love it; you’ve helped thousands (maybe even millions) because the clients you helped were able to help more of their clients since you provided them something they needed to move forward or maybe it was how many families or people you helped get through a difficult time or enjoy life a little more. No matter – you get the idea; you’ve achieved a win-win situation more than you ever expected when that thought of starting this venture popped into your head.

I digressed haven’t I? I got so excited of what your financial core, your strategic plan, can do for you in the various stages of your business endeavor, and yet, skeptic when I see how it can just as easily harm you when ignored. That’s how things are, right? When doing well or growing in your business or winning in Vegas, you’re totally exhilarated and feel like there’s nothing you can’t do! When the downfall hits, however, you feel like the ground fell out from under you. Things tend to go wrong in your business and then things start to go wrong with you personally as well.

The different segments of your business are dependent on one another and if you’re not running each as such, things will fall apart. Remember it helps to look at it as a strategically. Treating the elements of your business independently is a gamble, just as if you were in Vegas.

Here are a few tips to create higher odds for yourself and your business if you want your profits to soar and maintain control during the ups and the downs:

Clarify your long-term vision;
Adjust your mindset for the endgame and be more proactive – remember you want to be the quarterback not the firefighter;
Get your team on the same page and create lines of communication;
Create the processes that will help things run more efficiently and that will guide team members through their jobs without the need for micromanaging;
Know your numbers at all times;
Anticipate additional needs and resources so you keep control as you grow and move forward.
Review and revise as appropriate because what got you where you are today won’t get you to where you want to be tomorrow.

If you need direction, give us a call to help create your 2020 business roadmap, https://bit.ly/2KGNUci.

Peggy Niles

Process

Follow Up Or Lose Them?

by Peggy Niles

You talk with a client or prospect, issues come to light, you may or may not make promises, but the key question is do you follow up?

Follow up is key to building and keeping relationships, creating solutions, and growing your business, but too few businesses or their owners do it. Why is such a crucial step lacking?

Moving pieces, emergencies, interruptions, and restricted time are some of the indicators why follow up doesn’t happen. Let’s face it, owners have numerous responsibilities and tasks to deal with; somedays you feel like your day has spiraled away from you and follow up keeps getting pushed back to the next day and the next until it doesn’t happen at all.

One solution is creating a system for follow up. A step in the process might be to block some time out of your schedule each week. You might find that many in your client market deal with similar issues whereby you can have a plan already drafted or in place and find it just needs to be tweaked a bit for unique facts and circumstances; this could save you 90-95% of your time going forward as opposed to repeating the steps each time.

Consider how you feel when someone tells you they’ll get back to you and don’t. Remember that old saying “treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself”. Don’t let them slip away because of poor follow up!

Business Growth

Synchronize Your Business with Your Money Mindset

by Peggy Niles

For the majority of business owners, I have found two common correlations between a company’s growth and the owner’s money mindset when it happens.

The first situation came to mind when I was speaking with a colleague a few months back. He was telling me about a friend of his who inherited his father’s business. This friend managed to grow the company to high 8 figures and doesn’t need any more money for the rest of his life. It intrigued me when he went on to say “He’s set; he doesn’t have to do anything else to grow the business.” This struck me as a misconception, but one that many tend to lean toward. Companies often reach a certain level and then stagnate. This can be a dangerous thing all around, but mainly in terms of the ultimate cost you pay by doing nothing, or should I say by continuing to do the same things that got you where you are.

One incredible cost is reputation. Consider this, you make a lot of money and hoard it. You decide there’s no need to do anything differently because things are going great; you don’t reinvest any additional money into the business, including toward your team that helped you get here.

Team members start to resent you and the company; they not only leave but you have difficulty replacing them because word has gotten out that you’re a cheap skate and don’t take care of your employees.

Customers leave because you’re not creating anything new to entice them to stay over your now competitors and they’re unhappy because they’re being serviced by unhappy employees.

All of a sudden business starts to take a downturn – situation 1!

The second situation is when the company has grown rapidly bringing much happiness and success to the business owner! All of a sudden the company is moving to a bigger space, the owner buys a new car, travel costs go up, a hiring spree occurs, etc.; the possibilities are endless as to where the money goes, right? Right – until it’s gone – situation 2!

The scenario that both of these situations creates is loss of the endgame vision and lack of focus on the cash flow. These two themes should be front and center at all times. When you scale your business, it’s easier to create sustainable growth when you’re paying attention to these two things. It’s also easier to anticipate the highs and the lows, and create a blueprint as to how you’re going to ride the waves.

If you go back and think about the two growth reactions I mentioned earlier do you know what happens in each scenario? The companies are no longer attractive to buyers; they also might not be a viable solution for the owner’s retirement or initial exit strategy dreamed of. They in fact may have risked their own business continuance.

When you’re experiencing growth you want to consider how much of the excess cash should be invested for reserves. Should you sell the business now? Do you want to divest your investment and purchase or start another company? Do you want to implement your exit strategy?

You want to get into the proper money mindset early on so that when you do hit the roadblocks or plateaus you’ll have the confidence, energy and strategies in place to deal with them head on and grow your venture to new levels.

Other Business

To Ban or Not to Ban

by Peggy Niles

We grew up in a world where the motto is “the customer is always right”, but to what end? In more recent years society has also been discouraging hostile work environments.

Within the last few months Uber released a statement that they intend on banning low-rated customers. Where do you stand – ban or not ban?

One might also ask it as customers or employees – which comes first?

Those on the side of the “customers come first” might say that the Uber drivers have a choice; if they don’t like the type of customers they get, they don’t have to be an Uber driver. Let’s say we go with that, then what? Perhaps Uber runs into the dilemma of having difficulty finding, or keeping, drivers and we all know without drivers the business would definitely go under….well until they start using self-driving cars and perhaps robotic chauffeurs.

One might also argue that Uber needs to train their drivers better on how to deal with difficult customers or that they aren’t hiring the right people for the job. These might be potentially very good arguments, or not, only Uber knows.

Those on the side of removing the hostile work environments definitely have an argument as well; who wants to allow their employees, or contractors, to be berated on the job, or worse have their lives at stake?

If you ever run into a similar situation, consider these few thoughts:

Don’t make such a blanket statement – it could come across as threatening and result in alienating more of your potential customers (within your market) than you think.
Try to make it a win-win for everyone versus a win-lose/lose-win situation.
I read something about Uber potentially giving their customers tips to stay off the list. Depending on how this is communicated it could come across fairly juvenile. Think about a type of subtle messaging through your company’s advertising and marketing instead, e.g. the message given to a customer upon requesting a ride or the greeting a driver gives when customers enter their cars.
Make sure when you’re hiring that the potential employees fit the culture and values of the company, someone who represents the image you want your company to have.
Once you’re comfortable with who you’re hiring, train them well and provide them with resources and support.

There is another lesson all of us business owners may learn here and that relates to our business model. When you create your business, or even as your business grows, you want to look at the business model you want to have and build up.

There are elements that can be anticipated when you’re initially starting out and developing your business or strategic plan. This is the time you will identify some of the issues and create methods or systems for dealing with them.

Other obstacles will arise as you grow; that’s to be expected, but that’s why you have to keep in mind the importance of flexibility and regular reviews of your plans so that you can make timely adjustments.

When you think of Uber’s business model, you may or may not agree that some of the issues they are dealing with in regards to “low-rated customers” could have been anticipated. That being said, they could have created a strategy as to how this would be dealt with upfront to minimize the issues as they grow.

Profits

IT’S ABOUT PLANTING THE RIGHT SEEDS

by Peggy Niles

Part of building a profitable company with sustainable growth means being more cost conscious. Wait – DON’T STOP READING….I’m not talking about cutting costs! I’m talking about being more aware of how your costs are effecting the bottom line and the top line.

Here are a couple of examples:

Every business should be spending money on their advertising and marketing if they want to continue to bring clients and customers in. The important thing is to make sure the advertising and marketing dollars are actually working for you.

There is a certain culture within your company, a culture that represents you and your team; does your message show that culture? Does your message relay the true result – tangible and intangible – that your customers receive? Does your message relay what you truly offer, what you truly believe, and what your business model truly is? If not, your spend dollars won’t work as well for you because it won’t lead your best clients and customers to you, and therefore your top line revenue may not be as high as it could be.

Who are you using for your advertising and marketing? Are they creating material around you and your business model or are they forcing your message around their marketing model? Do you track and analyze the analytics to see which platforms are bringing in the clients and customers you want? If not, you’re decreasing your bottom line and throwing money into the wind.

Another great example is technology costs. There are applications and software programs that can add to your top line and to your bottom line. Are you sure you’re using the right ones for your business? Again, this answer depends on your business and your team. Your company may have chosen an application because it was referred to someone on your team by a friend or business acquaintance, but it may have been a general recommendation based on that person’s use, not specific to how it fits into yours. There might be another tool more specific to your needs so make sure you do your research and testing. Quite often there are trial periods for such tools – make sure to use those trials…actually use the tool during the trial on a daily basis so you can test its application to your needs.

Are you using the application or software to its fullest extent? Many clients of mine have had software that they are not utilizing to its fully capacity; in other words it has other capabilities that can be used but isn’t. Honestly, part of it may be laziness on the part of the user, but usually it’s unawareness so do your homework or it’s wasted $$$$s.

Another mistake has often been when more than one application is purchased for different uses when there are applications out there that do the same thing in just one program for less money. It’s all about not rushing into the purchase because of an immediate need.

Technology can be a strong tool in scaling your business so it is well worth the time and money to choose the right programs for your business.

When you add strategy to your business, you can anticipate your needs, analyze your resources, and know when your company will be outgrowing its current systems so you can prepare appropriately.

Peggy Niles, CPA

Strategic Scaling Solutions – We help companies scale without losing control

Process

How Does Your Process Effect Your Customer Experience

by Peggy Niles

When we think of creating processes within our business we tend to think in terms of cost and efficiency, but have you ever stopped to consider the effect your processes may have on your customers?

Not too long ago my son’s electronic car key broke; I thought the quickest way to fix or replace it was to go directly to the car dealer. Yes, I knew it would be more expensive, but I was thinking more from the convenience and timeliness at this point.

In we went to the nearest dealer and I can honestly say I will not be going back there. Their process was not only inefficient to them, but to us as well.

We walk in and naturally a salesperson quickly approaches. We tell him why we’re there and he says “I’m not sure about what to do; you should go to the parts department.” I look around and lo and behold no signs or direction as to where the parts department is so I ask him. He says “take the elevator or stairs down.” Again, no signs or direction clearly visible. “And that might be where?” He responds, “Oh, go down that way and turn right, take the elevator down and turn left to the parts department.”

We follow his directions and finally get to the parts department where we explain the situation. The employee says “well did you try to drive with it? Does it still fit in the ignition?” To this we respond “We don’t know; the key is bent we didn’t want to take a chance of it getting stuck in the ignition and make things worse.” He proceeds to try and “unbend or fix it” and in the process makes it worse. His response “well, I guess I know why you didn’t want to attempt it.” Really?

“Well I guess the only thing we can do is order a new one for you.” “Okay, how much will that cost?” He looks up the cost based on the make and model; I ask him “don’t you need any specific number or that off the car or anything?” “No” and he proceeds to give us the cost. As we’re about to tell him to go ahead and order it he says “that’s just the cost for the key; you’ll also have to pay to have it programmed to your car.” “Okay, how much do you estimate for that?” “I have no idea you have to ask the service department.” “Where’s that?” “Go out this door, turn left, and go through the other door; then you can come back and let me know if you want me to order it.”

Do you see the first flaw in this process? 1) Why don’t they have estimated costs and fees for parts and services in their system for all service related and customer support personnel to look up? 2) Not having this information in the system, why couldn’t he pick up the phone or intercom and ask the service department directly without having a customer run around to different departments to get a TOTAL estimate for what she/he wanted done?

Hang with me because there’s a moral to this story!

The service department gives me their estimate to which I ask if I will need to set up an appointment to have it programmed. The guy told me I could just pull up to the service entry and say here’s the key I just got from parts; it needs programming.

I now go back to the parts department and tell them to order the key. Wait for it….. He starts entering the order in the system and asks “do you have the car here or an insurance card? I need the vpin off of it to make sure I order the right key. REMEMBER WHEN I asked him if there was any information he would need off of the car and he said no.

We did order the key because, of course, we didn’t want to risk having only one key – the backup, right?

The guy calls a couple days later to tell me the key is in; he asks if I want him to transfer me to the service department to set up an appointment. I explain the service representative said that wasn’t necessary I should just bring it in when the key was here. (Don’t you think he would have checked on this with the service department before calling me?) I told him we’d be right over.

We head over, park the car by the service area and go to the parts department. The parts guy says “Oh, we still need to cut it so you can drop your car off at service and tell them we have the key so they should just come and get it from us.” (Why did they call to say the key was ready when they didn’t cut it yet?) So yet another, back and forth; this process couldn’t be explained over the phone as opposed to telling me to come and get the key; it’s ready!

The service department was an equally frustrating experience because they ask why you’re there and then they start walking around not informing you should you stay out there with the car, come back in when the car is in line, looked like chaos.

POOR PROCESS!!!

POOR COMMUNICATION!!!

Possibly POOR TRAINING!!!

Now to some this might seem like a small hit to the business because we were only there to get a key; that’s peanuts when you consider that they’re there to really sell much bigger ticket items such as cars.

Here’s the thing: the poor service received for just buying a key and having it programmed leads to any chance of a future car purchase by myself or family which leads to a much bigger cost to the car dealer. Not only that, but this experience will be shared and now they risk the loss of more car purchases and/or service contracts.

They had the opportunity for future increased revenues, less costs, visible teamwork and customer satisfaction if only they created a more efficient system and encouraged communication between team members, and with customers!

Don’t misconstrue the effect of initial small purchases, small customers, and lack of processes have on your company and bottom line.

Business Growth

What are Key Drivers to Business Growth?

by Peggy Niles

Do you feel your business has plateaued? When you’re prepared to grow your business and have the impact be more meaningful to you, don’t just focus on increasing your revenue or sales; you also want the growth to positively affect your bottom line, yourself and your team.

Here are the 5 key drivers you should have in the mix for business growth:

Your Endgame
Strategy
Your Team
Sustainability
Customer

Know Your Endgame

Clarify your vision – your ultimate goal – that you want to achieve from your business in the long-run. Why did you get in the game to begin with? What were you trying to accomplish for yourself and for your customers? When it’s all over and you’re sitting back having a conversation with a grandchild, how would you finish this statement “I’m so happy and satisfied that I was able to __________________ through my business.” Really be clear, try and picture it, but remember one thing while doing so. Don’t underestimate yourself! Dream Big!

The idea is not only to have something to shoot for, but to have that clear picture to turn to during the tough times, because let’s face it there will be tough times along with the good! You’ve probably experienced some already.

Once you have that clear picture of where you want the company to go and what you want to provide to your customers, be sure to share it with your entire team. The idea is to have everyone working toward the same outcome because it will take more than you to accomplish success, after all they say it takes a village.

Create Your Strategy

Your strategy is going to be your blueprint that will get you from intent to successful outcome. If you go in blindly, your company will be on the defensive every single day; you’ll be in constant reactive mode, seemingly always trying to catch up. Why not plan on getting ahead of the game instead? Be proactive and control where your company is going.

By creating a strategy you can pinpoint what to focus on at any given time to drive your business forward. By being alert to the plan you can monitor how you’re doing and anticipate when things have to be changed up as a result of unexpected variables.

The key to strategy, and the most difficult part though, is the execution. As I’m sure you’ve found already it’s very easy to get sucked in to putting out fires daily, dealing with issues, and being knee deep in time wasting tasks. There has to be a process to keep you focused and working on the path you created in the plan. This is where an outside perspective comes in very handy; again, it takes a village so make sure you’re covered with support.

Align Your Team

As I mentioned earlier you want to make sure your team is aware of, and on board with, your endgame goals. Just as important is that they hold the same values your company represents; make prospects aware of the culture, and make inquiries during the interview process to determine their fit in the culture you’ve created. This is, after all, part of your brand – your company’s image from customers and vendors outside looking in. You want to see consistency in expectations, performance and results.

Putting together a team can be compared to fitting the pieces of a puzzle because you want your members to complement one another in experience, knowledge and offerings. You want to make sure the team will work cohesively together to build a strong foundation.

You’ll also want your team to know how important they are in the company and its future. Encourage ideas, cooperation, flexibility, personal growth, and the like.

Build Sustainable Growth

If you want your company to last, it can’t just grow; you have to have the capability to sustain the growth. You will accomplish this through leveraging of your resources. Be sure to create scalable processes. You have to be aware that as you hit new stages of business, what got you to one point won’t get you to the next. There will be systems you outgrow and will have to modify with alternatives that are moving with you – be prepared.

Acknowledge Your Customer

Be sure to know your customer. Who do you serve and what do they really want? What they want today may not be what they want tomorrow. How are you going to deal with that? You’ll need to be observant and somewhat predict adjustments that will be needed on your end. Don’t be afraid to test ideas on customers. Talk to your customers and pay attention to trends happening in the world with respect to your product/service. Don’t underestimate the relationship in continued growth of your business, both from a recurring and new business standpoint.